Fife Council’s Community & Housing Services Committee has approved a £100,000 allocation towards a £300,000 upgrade of the Lade Braes shared use path in St Andrews.
External funding had already been secured, with a contribution of £150,000 from Sustrans Places for Everyone Programme, and £50,000 from St Andrews Common Good Fund. A public consultation exercise carried out in 2018 demonstrated that a majority of the 327 people who participated individuals agreed the path should be improved (91%).
The proposed improvements include:
- upgrading of the path surface;
- a reduction, where possible, of pinch points and barriers along the route;
- the replacement of broken seats, and improved signage;
- installation of new litter bins;
- installation of solar stud guidance lighting; and
- some minor tree work for public safety.
The works are scheduled to commence in late 2019, and be completed by April 2020.
Councillor Brian Thomson said: “This is excellent for St Andrews. The Lade Braes is a much loved and extremely well used route, linking the housing areas to in the west of St Andrews to the town centre, but much of the path has unfortunately got into a state of disrepair. I’ve been pushing for the upgrade for a number of years, and made the case for the project being included in the Council’s Capital Investment Plan back in 2017. The project has been delayed a bit since then, as it was felt it was worth trying to secure additional funding from Sustrans, and that has been proven to be the right decision, with a total of £300,000 now set to be spent on the path.”
